Development and Implementation of a M&E-System for the ‘EinTanzHaus’
The ‘EinTanzHaus’ is expected to be a center for contemporary dance in a cultural monument of particular importance in the City of Mannheim. The EinTanzHaus team and its director Daria Holme have jointly created the preconditions to develop a dance center in Southern Germany with the exemplary conversion of a protected historic church building, which can open up new perspectives for the dance scene in Germany due to its infrastructure, its stage size, its central location and the artistic experience.
The task of CEval GmbH was to develop and implement a M&E concept that serves for the management of the project and the regular review of goal attainment and impact assessment. Therefore, a target system and value-added indicators for the ‘EinTanzHaus’ as well as a data collection plan were developed together with the stakeholders in a first step. Further, CEval GmbH was involved in all steps of the data collection, evaluation and interpretation and thus supports the parties involved in the strategic management of the project and the evaluation of the projects goal achievement.
Data collection for the certificate “Fan project in accordance with the National Plan for Safety in Sports”
In Germany, there is a dense network of social work institutions in the field of adolescent soccer fans (fan projects) that work in accordance with the National Plan for Safety in Sports (German: Nationales Konzept Sport und Sicherheit). A certification of those fan projects has been launched in 2010. Offering fan projects an instrument of quality control, the certification is intended to pursue multiple goals: (a) establishing a common standard for fan projects, (b) increasing confidence in the work of fan projects, and (c) improving the working context of fan projects. The certificate has been awarded by the Quality Management Group of the Centre for Fan Project Coordination of the German Sports Youth (German: Koordinationsstelle Fanprojekte bei der Deutschen Sportjugend). Members of the Quality Management Group belong to several stakeholder groups: soccer, federal authorities (for family affairs), science, and fan projects themselves.
During a first subproject (5/2015-6/2016), CEval GmbH (a) revised the certification process, (b) tested the revised certification process on five fan projects, and (c) developed a standardized, feasible concept for collecting information necessary for certification. Thereby the certificate attests fan projects high quality of work.
Within second subproject, CEval GmbH supported the nationwide roll-out of the revised certification by collecting all necessary information on all the remaining German soccer fan projects.
Impact analysis of the project “Kita im Aufbruch: Prozessbegleitung Richtung Nachhaltigkeit” [Kita im Aufbruch: Process support for sustainability in education]
The State Association for the Protection of Birds in Bavaria e.V. (Landesbund Vogelschutz, LBV) had implemented the environmental education project “Kita im Aufbruch: Process support for sustainability in education” between November 2020 and March 2022. The aim of the project was to contribute to the structural embedment of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in early childhood care by process support for selected Bavarian day-care centers. The CEval GmbH conducted an impact analysis of the project. By means of a before-and-after survey of day-care center staff, parents and day-care center operators, the impact of the project on the competencies of the pedagogical staff and the quality of educational offers as well as pedagogical processes in terms of ESD had been investigated. In addition, the CEval team further analyzed to what extent the project contributes to a holistic transformation of the learning and teaching environment towards a structural embedment of ESD in the daycare centers. In addition to pedagogical concepts, this also includes the areas of sustainable procurement and catering in the sense of a sustainable menu. In order to be able to clearly assign observed effects and impacts to the interventions of the project, the impact analysis was based on a quasi-experimental design including comparison groups (daycare centers without participation in process support) into the survey. The team combined, qualitative and quantitative survey methods in the process of data collection.
Evaluation of APPEAR projects (programme periods I and II)
The Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development (APPEAR) is conceived, guided and financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) to implement its “Higher Education and Scientific Cooperation” strategy in support of Higher Education and Research for Development on an academic institutional level. The funded projects are implemented by the Austrian Agency for International Mobility and Cooperation in Education, Science and Research (OeAD GmbH). APPEARs overall objective is to strengthen the institutional capacities in higher education, research and management through Academic Partnerships with Austrian higher education institutions and through scholarships. The partnerships aim to improve the general standards in higher education, research and management by means of knowledge sharing and designing innovative projects. The achievement of these objectives should finally contribute to effective and sustainable reduction of poverty in the partner countries.
The overarching goal of the evaluation was to assess the ongoing and completed projects of the APPEAR periods I and II. Thereby, it provided insights about the projects adherence to the APPEAR guidelines and basic principles during their implementation, and about the extent to which they were to achieve their objectives and results. Furthermore, the projects were assessed according to the OECD/DAC criteria Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Impact and Sustainability. The objective of the evaluation was to identify the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of the APPEAR projects and present conclusions, lessons learnt and recommendations for the remaining or future projects.
The evaluation made use of a variety of methods. Primary data was collected during project visits to Ethiopia and Uganda, interviews and focus group discussions with project partners in Austria as well as virtual interviews with staff and key stakeholders of two projects in Nicaragua. The data collection instruments also comprised semi-standardized surveys, programme and project documentations and previous programme evaluations.
Evaluation of CAPAQUA
CAPAQUA (Development of Educational and Research CAPacity in Eastern Africa for the Sustainable Management of AQUAatic Ecosystems) aims at enhancing the capacity of Eastern African Higher Education, Science and Technology (HEST) institutions. CAPAQUA is jointly implemented by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, the Egerton University (EGU), the Addis Ababa University (AAU), the Bahir Dar University and the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, National Fish and Other Aquatic Lives Research Center (EIAR-NFALRC). CAPAQUAs overall objective is to foster sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems and their resources in order to improve livelihoods in Eastern Africa and to contribute towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The main purpose of the evaluation was to identify successes as well as weaknesses of the project, and to provide recommendations for the project partners to improve the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of possible future CAPAQUA projects. The evaluation was also analysing the extent to which the cross-cutting issue gender mainstreaming was applied and identified the major factors influencing the achievement or non-achievement of the expected project results and objectives. In order to assess the project, the evaluation focussed on the project period from October 2015 to September 2018.
A rich set of mainly qualitative data was collected by means of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with different stakeholders, programme participants, graduates as well as staff. Programme and project documentations provided secondary data and was complemented by primary data collected during focus group discussions. The geographic focus of the evaluation was the Eastern African region, with emphasis on Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, where empirical data was collected during short field visits. Additionally, Austrian institutions were visited and stakeholders interviewed.
Evaluation of the program “DLR-DAAD Research Fellowships”
Since 2008 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German AcademicExchange Service (DAAD) are jointly implementing a research fellowship programme with a focus on energy, aeronautics, space and transport related disciplines. The programme aims at contributing to the internationalization of DLR institutes as well as promoting researchers who maintain a relation to Germany as partners and friends. The goal of the evaluation was twofold: On the one hand, it should assess the programmes medium- and long-term effects. On the other hand, it identified potentials for improvement and come up with suggestions for necessary adaptions in view of a possible future continuation of the programme. In terms of methodology, the evaluation relied on a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. Among others, guided interviews, focus group discussions, on-site visits as well as an online survey were implemented.
External Evaluation of the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP II) and Netherlands Initiative for Capacity Development in Higher Education (NICHE II)
On behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) the CEval implemented an external Evaluation of the Dutch Fellowship Programme (NFP II) and Netherlands Initiative for Capacity Development in Higher Education (NICHE II). Financed by the MFA and administered by the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education ‘EP-Nuffic’, these programs offer capacity development in higher education for developing partner countries.
The overall aim of NFP and NICHE is to help reduce quantitative and qualitative shortage of trained professional staff in developing countries and to build sustainable capacity within the poverty reduction Framework. The NFP provides Fellowships to mid-career professionals to participate in Trainings and postgraduate courses in the Netherlands. NICHE is a capacity building programme to improve the quality, relevance and gender sensitiveness of post-secondary education in NICHE-countries.
The evaluation covered the period of 2002-2015 while a focus was on the latest project phase since 2012 which put an additional emphasis on economic diplomacy and closer alignment with the four priority themes of the Dutch development cooperation strategy (water, sexual reproductive health and rights, security and rule of law and food security). The purpose of the evaluation was to account for the Netherlands funding provided for the two programs under the current project cycle and to gain lessons for future policy development and implementation. Within the scope of the evaluation, both programs were analysed regarding the OECD/DAC criteria of relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. Recommendations for possible optimization of the program were developed on the basis of the findings. The evaluation was conducted in cooperation with ACE Europe, a Belgian consultancy.
Process Evaluation of the career support program ‘Securing Talents – Shaping the Future’ (2019/2020)
The program ‘Securing talents – shaping the future’ by the Cusanuswerk aims to support future female leaders. The program focuses on mentoring elements that is tutorial support for scholarship holders by professionally experienced academics. It also focuses on occupationally specific training and support measures as well as on building a peer-network. The CEval has been conducting accompanying external evaluations to ensure quality management since the start of the career support program in 2007. An accompanying evaluation also take place during the seventh program run 2019/2020. The main task of this evaluation was to provide the responsible employees with management-related information. In this context, questions regarding satisfaction with the offered events, quality of tutorial relationships as well as questions regarding professional and personal use of the relationships for both sides are especially relevant. In regards to methods, the evaluation covered standardized questionnaires of mentees and mentors compared at three points in time.
Evaluation of the website www.bne-portal.de
The German Commission for UNESCO is a Quango in the field of multilateral cultural, educational, Research, and media policy. The website www.bne-portal.de is one of their efforts in contributing to the Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development. The website is considered to open the field of education for sustainable development (German: Weltaktionsprogramm Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung) to actual as well as future protagonists in Germany. After a re-launch in 2016 and an uptime of one year, CEval GmbH was entrusted to evaluate the website www.bne-portal.de.
The evaluation of the website was focused on (a) clarity, relevance, and appeal of the provided information, (b) attractiveness of design and structure, (c) information accessibility, (d) practical relevance of information, (e) usefulness of provided contact channels, (f) degree of fulfilling user expectations, (g) intensity of use, (h) popularity/attractiveness of its education materials, and (h) popularity/attractiveness of its protagonist database.
The evaluation was based on an online user survey followed by quantitative data analysis.
Formative Evaluation of the Out-of-School-Children Initiative (OOSCI)
The focus of this evaluation was the Out-of-School-Children Initiative (OOSCI) by UNICEF and UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). The initiative was launched in 2010 to achieve a reduction in the number of children out of school in participating countries. Means to achieve this goal were to create comprehensive profiles of out-of-School children in each Country, identify the barriers that push children out of school and to propose changes in the policies and strategies of the partner country to address these barriers.
The evaluation aimed at testing the validity of the theory of change and its assumptions. It is used to strengthen the program logic and to provide a formative assessment of the progress towards the overall goal of achieving a reduction in out-of-school children. The evaluation also provides an in-depth insight into benefits for the different stakeholders and their involvement in the initiative. Furthermore, the findings of the evaluation are used to meet the accountability requirements by the donors of OOSCI.
Main source of information of this evaluation have been documents like OOSCI country studies, OOSCI regional studies, government plans and documents from other donors (e.g. the World Bank, UNESCO, foreign donors etc.). In a document review we assessed progress made through OOSCI for a sample of 42 countries and assessed the contents within the document using a 4-step coding. These codings were used for a descriptive analysis and additionally for a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA enabled us to analyze thoroughly which set of conditions leads to which outcome. Further instrument of data collection has been an online survey to all country offices. Additional qualitative data has been collected in the US and during eight country visits. The evaluation has been conducted together with Proman and further Consultants. CEval took over the lead with regard to the evaluation methodology.
